🤔 Morning thoughts (May 12 - 18)
Every Sunday I share a quote and a reflection on it for each day of the week.
Themes of the week: pain, adversity, discipline, self-respect, transformation, movement, service
Sunday - May 18, 2025
You need to stay present for the pain, and that’s when the level-up occurs. You wait till that moment. You can’t take one more second of that pain, that torture. That’s when you flip the timer on.
Wes Watson
You are defined by how you handle your moments of adversity. Can you, in your worst moments, extract even a drop of positive energy and momentum? That’s the work nobody’s willing to do.
Saturday - May 17, 2025
"Every day, every hour and every moment you do not work toward a target is another day, hour and moment that your goal has to wait before it comes into existence."
Antony Cummins, How to Be a Modern Samurai
Whether it’s improper action, inaction or improper thought, you’re creating a vacuum. Your reality will mirror it. Create with your mind and body, be proactive about the energy you put forth, each and every moment.
Friday - May 16, 2025
"For a human being, the greatest unhappiness is not being able to like oneself."
Ichiro Kishimi, The Courage to Be Disliked
You have no one to impress but yourself. Self respect and self leadership are the starting points for being able to abundantly and unconditionally love others. It starts within.
Thursday - May 15, 2025
"The Warrior needs room to swing his sword. He needs separation from his opponents in the outer world and from his own inner opponents in the form of negative emotions."
Robert Moore, King, Warrior, Magician, Lover
Inaction, space and separation, are active ways to restore your balance and identity. You ground in your values. It’s how you go back to what makes you you, and who you want to become.
Wednesday - May 14, 2025
"A rational leader suggests changing course to avoid a storm. An irrational one can change the weather."
Rory Sutherland, Alchemy
There’s an upside in going against the current in a world where most people think they’re perfectly rational. Opportunity comes to those who rewrite the rules after understanding the game.
Tuesday - May 13, 2025
Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.
Alfred Adler
Progress in life matters more than promises. It’s about levels. Never trust someone who’s not moving forward when they say they’ll do it - only when they act on it.
Monday - May 12, 2025
"Our work exists to change the recipient for the better. That’s at the core of the practice. When you’re doing the work for someone else, to make things better, suddenly, the work isn’t about you."
Seth Godin, The Practice
Work is both an act and an attitude. When you’re being of service the practice really is about getting better. Detachment breeds perfection.